Today was another very busy and exhausting day, where more groups went trawling and orienteering in the forest. Other groups experienced a range of water and land based activities, from kayaking to learning cycle skills in the velodrome. The children are currently enjoying their last night disco and then we will head back to begin the packing process!!!

There are lots of very tired faces today, so hopefully everyone will sleep well again tonight!

Today has been another great day, with lots of activities taking place. This morning saw the children experience all sorts, including kayaking, ringos, cycle skills, archery, climbing and the team swing! Although the weather was a little damp and dreary, the children all really enjoyed their activities and a few even conquered their fear of water or heights! After another huge lunch, some children were off out terrific trawling this afternoon, where they managed to catch a wide variety of fish and even some rays. Other children spent the afternoon inside, with more ringos and cycling. Today also saw our first groups venture off site to the forest for orienteering, an exciting adventure for all. We are currently enjoying our evening activities before heading back to finish our film from last night. Another brilliant day for all and hopefully another quiet nights sleep to follow.

Our first full day at Calshot has been action packed! All 7 groups have had their first experience of the water activities today, including kayaking, sailing and the terrific trawler! Luckily, the weather was on our side all morning and the children all had fun. The afternoon saw a range of activities for all groups including, ringos, climbing, skiing, archery, initiative course and cycle skills. Another day where the children have all eaten well, with a large breakfast, lunch and dinner. Children are currently at their evening activities and then will go back to the house for showers and bed. Some of the children are very tired and the teachers are certainly hoping for more sleep tonight!! The children have all done their best to ensure Mrs Sankey has had a fantastic birthday and gave her a rather loud rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ after dinner. We are very proud of how the children have participated in all activities so far and we are looking forward to another fun-filled day tomorrow! Please enjoy a selection of photos below.

After arriving here at about 11, the children were taken on a tour of the site by their activity instructors. We then had some time to make our beds before the fire alarm practise. After a very big lunch we started our afternoon activities which ranged from climbing to skiing! The children are currently enjoying their final activity of the day and they are all looking very tired and ready for bed. They have settled in quickly and everyone seems happy with their groups and rooms! Photos will follow from tomorrow.

We have been researching the states which make up the USA and have almost completed our class collage. Our research included finding out a little bit about each state and looking into which materials we would like to use to make our map.

This year for art week, our theme has been ‘people’ – focusing on either the past, present or future. In year 6 we have focused our work on the future.

Eagle class decided to work specifically with human hands. our final piece would be a sculpted hand, showing a particular symbol which would represent our future. our hands would then be painted using metallic paints to give them a real futuristic feel!

After spending some time researching different hand symbols, we decided on our favourite symbol and researched the meaning behind the symbol. Everyone then sketched their favourite design, before teaming up in pairs to collaborate our ides to create one final piece between 2 people.

For our final design, we filled latex gloves with sand. We then used elastic bands to manipulate our sand gloves into our chosen designs and secured them in place. Next, we had to paper mache around our glove to solidify our symbolic design.

Once the paper mache had dried, we carefully selected colour schemes and began to paint our designs (after first painting on a base layer of silver).

Finally, we had to write a few short words describing our design, why we chose it and what it means to us!

Ally visited the school last week to tell us about her book Black Powder. It was a story of a boy called Tom on a mission to save his father from being hung and he finds himself mixed up in the Gunpowder Plot. She talked about her past and how she was inspired to write her book. We did a lesson on what makes a good spy and we had lots of interesting ideas. Ally brought in her printer’s copy of the almost finished book as they are printed as two and then cut in half.

I thought it was mind blowing meeting Ally and enjoyed it when she was talking about her inspiration for Black Powder. I found all the historical facts really interesting especially all the gory moments.

We can’t quite believe that it is October already, the year is flying by! We are currently enjoying our topic of Ancient Greece, with Eagles having their first experience of ‘class wars’! For class wars, half of Eagles class became Athenians and half of us became Spartans, we then had time in our teams (or city states) to research our cause ready to then put forward our arguments for why our ay of life was superior and the future for all of Greece.

Spellings and multiplication tables tests are now both under way as we all get into the swing of our new routine – Mr Rutledge is still adapting to the way our school works too!

As I’m sure you’re all aware, we are extremely excited for Calshot and it can’t come quick enough! We’re having a tricky time trying to decide which activity we are looking forward to the most.

Please find the spellings for this week attached to bottom of this post.